Pariah Nexus

 Right, time to give another one of those Games Workshop franchise made cartoons a go.

Though I must admit, I liked Blacktalons for the story, the style of animation, for a "connoisseur" of the japanese anime style, isn't really down my alley.  Luckily, this series is a full CGI project, making it look more as an exquisite videogame cutscene movie of high definition.

But, never the less, I sat down and watched this short 3 episode series set in the Warhammer 40k universe.  Set on the planet Paradyce, overrun by Necrons, sister Danica of the Adeptus Sororitas is fighting a desperate last stand.  When teamed up with a guardsman, she runs into Sa'Kar of the Salamanders chapter, who is trying to save the civilians she seems unworthy of saving, fuelled by her hate for the planet to have fallen.

The Necron Illuminor Szeras activated a Deathmark assassin to hunt them down, and just when Danica comes through her hate-fuelled hallucinations, the assassin shoots her down before the Salamander destroys it.  Sa'Kan manages to save a children, sending them west, he goes to hunt Szeras.

But in true 40k style, when the children arrive at the next camp, they are gunned down by the military in order to prevent a brain affecting sickness infesting them...

So, short and grim, and fitting for the 40k universe.  The opposing points of view between Sa'Kar and Danica play out nicely though for such a short series, and it is worth the watch if you are into the game.  

After all, worst that can happen if you don't like it, is that you only spend an hour of your time...

Tau SEED Destiny 1000 points force completed

 Consider it a fun side project that had no time pressure on it, I finally finished the first 1000 points of the force.

All painted like Gundam mobile suits from SEED and SEED Destiny (bar the drones, I went to the classic Ball for that), that means a very colourfull force to put on the table.

Okay, so rumours have it that 10th is around the corner and everything might change again, but here is the force now, using the Bor'kan Sept as it's root for the rules.

Commander

Bodyguard unit

Crisis squad

Stealth suits

Broadside squad

So yeah, it is a small force of course with all the battlesuits, but the drones do bulk the force out a bit.

Though of course, at my speed... I started building and painting this force for 9th edition, and in the meantime 10th has been announced and the points tally will probably be all the way off by the time I get it actually to a table.  And with the total system overhaul, I`m skipping 40k I think in favour of The Old World...

Oh well, at least it looks cool in my shelves and I`ll see with the new edition what has to be done with it to bulk it out and add I guess...

Tau SEED Destiny project: GAT-X131 Calamity Broadside battlesuit

 The latest addition to the project, and the one that brings the points total of my force now to a 1.000 points making it playable, is this Broadside painted up as the Calamity.

An ideal match as this older Broadside sports the dual rail cannons on it's shoulders, like the Calamity does with his two huge guns, that meant it was time for a turquoise and orangy-yellow battlesuit.

And considering the Calamity is developped from the Buster, in whose colours my other Broadside is painted, that makes for a nicely paired unit.

Adding a serious amount of firepower as such to the force, as in no matter what edition those railguns could ruin an opponents heavy units, this also gives some good mobility due to being mounted on a battlesuit compared to a tank.  Add to that the missile pods, whom in the current edition ignore cover, and you have a unit that poses a serious threat anywhere on the board.

 

 

And with a shield and a gun drone, it has some additional suicidal protection as well...

The Inspiration

The GAT-X131 Calamity gundam, piloted by Orga Sabnak, was one of the antagonist suits in the second half of Gundam SEED, it was finally destroyed in the finale against the Justice gundam at the second battle of Jachin Due.

And that rounds out the units for my initial 9th edition Tau battlesuits force!

 

 

Tau SEED Destiny project: ZGMF-1001/M Blaze Zaku Phantom Heine Westenfluss custom

 It has been "a while", as in over a year, since I did an update on my budding Tau battlesuit force inspired and painted by my beloved Gundam SEED Destiny series.

But, I completed recently the third suit for my bodyguard crisis suit team.

Based on the third member of the Zaft elite team alongside Lunamaria Hawke and Ray Za Burrel, this mostly orange tinted mobile suit was piloted by the late Heine Westenfluss.  A brave warrior and capable and skilled officer, he met his end when outmatched by the Freedom gundam.

For the suit, I went with dual Burst cannons, and a multi-tracker for even more possible hits against rank and file units like cultists or guardsmen, to allow the other suits in the team to take on the juicer targets.  For even more low power mass volume firepower, he is joined by two gun drones to boot.

So that completes the bodyguard team, and in the current points cost system the force is now nearly ready for a 1000 point outing, just needing to finish, as in go beyond the undercoat, a single suit and it's drones.

 

 

The Inspiration

I based the paint scheme on the mostly orange suit of Heine ofcourse, specifically his Blaze Zaku Phantom, even though he also piloted a Gouf Ignited in the same coulours.  But as the other two piloted Zaku's, this seemed more appropriate.

 

 

Now to get that force finished and get a game in hopefully this summer...

AHPC11: Chamber of Darkness: ZGMF-1001/M Blaze Zaku Phantom Rey Za Burrel custom

 We decent further into the abyss with perhaps the hardest of the entries to wrap my mind around: paint something in grayscale.

Now, my first idea was to be boring and go for a ruin or a statue or the likes, but then as I was preparing my hobby goals for 2021 (a post found on my blog from the beginning of january), inspiration hit me.

As part of my Gundam SEED Destiny inspired Tau force, the third bodyguard suit for the commander still needed to be painted.  I already did the orange one and the burgundy one, but the third elite ZAFT pilot in the series, Rey Za Burell, pilots a light grey modified ZAKU suit, so I went along and painted that one for this entry.

And I admit, his drones have been used for the previous chamber, the Golem's...

Making use of various greys (bar the base), the suit is completely done in the spectrum from black to white, and about every grey I have lying around here in it.  Add some small details for the eye and lenses, and voila, one greyscale battlesuit ready to fight for the Greater Good (or the ZAFT, depending your preferred franchise).

The Inspiration:

As I stated above, this is the modified Blaze ZAKU piloted by Rey.  The suit has a generic loadout, so as such I also went for the pretty standard combination of a tracker, a meltagun and a missile pod, which is a bit of a good combination for all purpose duties on the field of battle.

Next up for this project, though doubtfull that will be during the AHPC, will be "regular" ZAKU suits in their traditional olive green liveries.

AHPC11: Golem Haunt: Tau Gun Drones

 For the next chamber to be braved in the Chambers of Challenge, a place full of dreaded traps and horrid beasts, the Golem's Haunt has to be conquered.

The idea in this room is to submit something that has been "created", and while I initially thought of some beast to print for my DnD pile, I went for another route and chose AI.

The Tau empire makes extensive use of AI drones to accompany their troops, and as part of my Gundam SEED inspired army (work in progress, estimate finishing 2027) I painted up a couple of Gun Drones (in the colours of a "Ball" worker mobile suit).

These little discs of sheer annoyance add some additional firepower to a Tau unit, but their real use lies in the Saviour Protocols, in which they sacrifice themselves for their masters nearby when under fire.

So that is 2 models for the room, which with the room bonus yields a lovely 30 points for the tally.

And now, onwards to the one challenge I dread the most this year!

T'au SEED Destiny: ZGMF-1000/A1 Gunner ZAKU Warrior

The next, and second, mobile suit for my bodyguard unit of Tau, is the suit piloted by my long time anime crush: Lunamaria Hawke's Gunner ZAKU.

You see, the unit will have widely varrying colourschemes, as all three of them (Heine, Lunamaria and Rey) had personalised suits, and this one is perhaps the hardest to recreate.

Sporting a purple / reddish / burgundy colourscheme, it was a bit hard to find a good balance between fitting together yet contrasting, but in the end I`m happy with the result.  Being a long ranged suit, I went for the best weapon loadout to represent this, in the form of a missile pod and a plasma rifle.

Together with the right Sept treats (of course, my sept is called Gun'Dam) this makes for a rather mobile yet stable force of all battlesuits, even if it is a pity in 9th edition the Fly rule got tweaked as that made battlesuits forces look really playable.  Not that I tried, I faced them once and snatched victory, but I have been slowly building the force during 8th and it still isn`t ready, as it really is an "in between" project.

Accompanying her are a gun drone (more guns) and a marker drone (best fitting for the sniping nature of the original suit), and as such completes 2/3rd of the unit, which I hope to get completely finished by, say, the end of 2020...

So to that end, she adds 81 points to the total, putting the project now at 849 points in 9th edition.

The Inspiration

One of the many variants of the ZGMF-1000 ZAKU Warrior achieved through use of the Wizard Packs, the Gunner ZAKU Warrior is specialized for artillery strikes. Besides the standard armament of the ZAKU Warrior, the Gunner ZAKU Warrior also carries a M1500 "Orthros" high-energy long-range beam cannon, which is installed on the back-mounted Gunner Wizard Pack. This beam cannon is the strongest ranged weapon available to the ZAKU Warrior and grants it an impressive firepower over long ranges, capable of destroying any mobile suits or mobile armors within its line of fire.

And that is it for this mobile suit or battlesuit, I tend to use the first term for my force for obvious reasons... see you next time for some more SEED Destiny inspired models...

A pair of Gun Drones

Nothing fancy in this post, as it is just a little tying up of a loose end.

Back in april, I painted the Heine Westenfluss battlesuit for my Tau SEED Destiny army, and I finally found a little hole to paint up his drones.

Both are of the Gun Drone variation, and while suits became far less intresting in 9th from what previews show (no fall back and shoot anymore, ouch), they still remain bloody cool looking.

I might even get the force finished before 9th comes to an end x-D

T'au Kill Team

It took a while (like, 7 months or so) but I finally rounded out the Stealth suits this month to be able to field my Kill Team.

While nothing to fancy, it does contain a mighty 8 models for it's 100 points limit.

Leading it of course is a Stealth suit Shas'vre, armed with Burst Cannon as well as a Markerlight and Target Lock, so it can either provide some support to the team, or stroll guns blaing over the field.

The same goes for my Fusion Blaster one, as he has the Heavy specialism so he can blaze away at full speed.

The third suit received the Comms specialism, so the three can actually set up a nice combo to get a very heavy hitting fusion blast in if needed, or lay down a hail of burst cannon shots against lighter armoured troops.

And they are greatly helped by the fact they all have Fly and their Camouflage Fields of course...

Supporting the suits are 5 drones, in the guise of 1 shield drone and 2 each of the gun and marker variants, to make the most of the Saviour Protocols for the Stealth suits.

For the Greater Good!

T'au SEED Destiny: UMF/SSO-3 ASH

Well, I had hoped to present this post as my newest Kill Team force, ready to go to battle in Kill Team at the local club.

But once again, something new isn't embrased by the local player base (you should have seen the discussion about Beta Bolters back when those where published...) so well, this is just my newest entry in the slow building force of T'au, based on the SEED Destiny anime.

The Stealth suits are in my opinion nice little sculpts, and honestly, for Kill Team they have a great skillset.  The -1 to hit and the high armour makes them pretty resistant, the multishot burst cannons can wrack an opponent to high heaven, and the fly rule of the suits makes them mobile as heck.  Sure, you are heavily outnumbered, but then again you have the cheap markerlight drones to fill out the force, take hits for your suit, AND add markerlights on the enemy...

The Inspiration:

Seen in episode 13 of the anime, when the Freedom makes his glorious return to the franchise, the ASH suits are new high tech infiltration suits created by ZAFT.  Hence the SSO in their designation, being part of the Special Ops wing of the organisation.

While the anime version is well armed as well, with beam claws and missile pods, I choose to copy their colour scheme.  The burst cannons nicely represent the fast firing pods, while the fusion blaster is a good representation of the beam weapons.

So that's the fourth unit of my force now completed, maybe it's time to build more of the actual "mainstay" suits for the force, the Crisis suits, next...

The TSA 40k League 2019 result

The die has been cast, and the bolters have silenced.

A new champion has been crowned for the TSA club league 40k, and the winner is:

Tom Jacobs with the Adeptus Custodes.

In a league which saw most action in the months april to july, with at a certain moment 7!!!! battles on a single friday evening, he stood against all his challengers and walked away victorious.

As player tiredness set in from september, with even a 5 week draught in that time, he could slowly and surely consolidate his position, going into november with an 8 point lead on the second place, and only a minimal mathematical chance for the places 3 to 5 to threaten him.

Some "shadow favorites" like myself and Nemesis ended in the belly of the league, due to various reasons called real life (renovations and a baby on the way for one, an epic thinking he is still 20 for the other), others lived up to their reputation and fought on until the end to try and take the prices.

And Mike just swarmed everything with his Orks, ending in the top ranks under the motto that quantity is a quality in itself in played games, challenging a hefty 19 out of 28 players this league.

In the end, 222 battles have been fought, with 28 players taking the fight to the table.  That means an average of 7.92 games per player has been fought over the 11.5 month period.

Of those 28, 16 players managed to claim the painting points, a heavy 5 point bonus of fielding a painted army at least once.

Here is as such the full table of results:

1. Tom Jacobs - 57 ptn
2. Jo Strubbe - 45 ptn
2. Mike Snelders - 45 ptn

4. Wim Discart - 39 ptn
5. Tom Van Riel - 36 ptn
6. David Nicolas - 34 ptn
6. Cedric Snelders - 34 ptn
8. Guy Vandenbrande - 31 ptn
9. Kristof Van Riel - 27 ptn
10. Marc Jacobs - 26 ptn
10. Steven Groffy - 26 ptn
12. Tomsche Murrath - 25 ptn
13. Kristof Moorkens - 20 ptn
13. Tom Degendt - 20 ptn
15. Albert Van Looy - 18 ptn
15. Dimitri Van Der Straeten - 18 ptn
17. Bart Depaemelare - 17 ptn
18. Jelle Rombouts - 16 ptn
18. Sven Naudts Haemels - 16 ptn
18. Tom Lambotte - 16 ptn
21. Tonny Bert - 13 ptn
22. Sven Somers - 12 ptn
22. Pierre Lambotte - 12 ptn
24. Filip Claes - 8 ptn

25. Jurgen Buys - 6 ptn
25. Iwan Beckaert - 6 ptn
25. Dennis Van Sprengel - 6 ptn
27. Peter Geentjes - 5 ptn



Thanks all for participating, and good luck to the person who will take on the mantle as club league 2020 organiser, in whichever game system it may be.  It is a rewarding and fun thing to do as a TO, but take into account the paperwork pressure!

The prices will be handed out during the new years reception at the club.

The Shattering of a Legion

It is over.  The Emperor's Children have left my possession and moved to a new owner.

I have been thinkering a LONG time with the idea, for various reasons I touched upon on this blog a multitude of times in the past year.

Library sized moving for a game, constant revisions of the rules, those where just some of the reasons I got "burned out" playing Chaos Marines, combined with the fact I have been doing so for years already.  No, it was time for something else with less books and less FAQ hassle, so I decided to stick to my Battlesuits Tau force a while ago.

And now I found a new adoptive parent for the pink brigade, so three moving boxes later, they are off to a new life.  That I also didn`t need to pack them up a such for the house move or to take them to the BnB on Crisis is, well, a bonus.

And when I just couldn`t get round to painting even 5 figures in the past two months, I knew the drive for the force has ebbed away for good...


For the "history books", I fielded it in this current edition a total of 23 times (so that`s about a game a month since the edition appeared, not counting multi-players and such), of which 15 where victorious, a win ratio as such of 65% or about 2 out of every 3 battles I played, including an undefeated record in our club league.

The army gave me joy during 8th, but it had just ran it's course...

Altar of Slaanesh september update

It's been a while, but we appeared at the battlefield... and added trophies to the altar of Slaanesh!

Technically end of august for the first one, but the month ended the day after anyways though...

And that was against one of our League toprunners, Wim, and his Salamander successor chapter.  So "in memoriam" it is now contained near the pillar for eternity.

My lady has been pleased!

T'au SEED Destiny: GAT-X105+AQM/E-X01 Aile Strike Gundam

Every force needs a commander, and for the battlesuits I'm painting up, this one is it.

While I do have some other ideas, like the Coldstar Commander, a Tau battlesuit force can at the moment only have a single commander suit per detachment, so he will have to do the job in the 1500 points force.

The models is a slightly converted battlesuit commander, with the 'fins' on the head repositioned in order to pick him apart on the table (apart from his colourscheme) as the migthy plasma leader of dead.  Because I went for both a regular plasma (painted purple as the color of his anime counterparts Beam Saber) as well as a Cyclonic Ion Blaster for armaments, and a shield generator for protection.  Add to this his signature wargear of a Seismic Destabiliser to annoy models in cover, and his treat of Exemplar of Mont'Ka to advance and shoot without penalties with his Cyclonic.  And his armour is upgraded to Iridium for some extra protection...

He is also joined by two drones to intercept some shots coming his way of course, who like all my other drones have been painted up as "Balls", in the form of a Gun drone and a Shield drone.

The Inspiration

Strike was the first Gundam Kira Yamato piloted in the series, and it had an attachable jump pack for air combat, the Aile module.  I went for this option as inspiration because the T'au suits have those large jump packs, and the red of the Aile contrasts nicely with the predominant white and blue of the bodywork as a result.

Next in this project, either Zaku inspired normal battlesuits, or stealth suits which double as my Kill Team force...

Emperor's Children vs Salamanders 1500 points Battle Report

It has been long enough that I have been sitting, brooding on my marble throne until some players gotten "to far out of reach" to catch up with in my TSA League.

Whining how I didn't like the game anymore and selling my army etc to make sure I didn't had to refuse challenges, this was the best way to avoid me from having any chance ending in the top spots of a league I created myself.

But now, with only 3.5 months of game time to go, in which I can get tops 5 battles in anyways, I'm somewhere in the midfield and it is time to unleash the hurricane of pinks and purples again on the contestants.

And the first in my path is a force of Salamanders, who also are fielded by one of the top league players, Wim and have some pretty ccurate shooting build with them.  Nevertheless, I'm going the way of high risk, high reward this time (yeah, a bit against my nature) and going with a heavy close combat orientated force.  Now, the list I`m taking was made to face Tau, but my opponent had to cancel last moment and Wim stepped in for a game.

Consisting of a tooled up Demon Prince, a sorcerer and Lucius for the character slots, the force also takes along some serious blocks of troops in the form of a 20 man cc squad, a squad of Noise Marines and a block of Cultists.  To add even more troops to the party are 2 units of daemonettes to be summoned to the field when and where needed, as their claws can get very nasty against battle suits.  A squad of Havocs with 2 lascannons and 2 chaincannons, and the support of a laser destroyer and a quad bolter, make me able to lay down a serious amount of covering fire as well while the force advances over the tablefield, ready to rip up some Loyalists...

Opposing me? Salamanders known for their abundance of lascannons and heavy bolters.  A Captain, an Apthecary and 2 Techmarines provided the logistics, backed by three 5 man tactical squads, three heavy bolter devastator squads, 2 dual lascannon equipped forge world dreadnoughts, a Predator with heavy bolters and autocannon, and a Xyston fighter...

The table rolled was set up nr 3, with the 9" circle in the middle, and Wim rolled the Cloak and Shaodws scenario.  I loved this, the -1 would help hopefully in my rush forward...

So the forces where deployed, and we where ready to go to war...

Turn 1

I had the first turn, and started a long run down the centre towards the enemy gunline.  I would have to pass through the central bottleneck to get there, so this might become a slaughter, or if I was lucky, would get me there swiftly.  To reinforce this rush and cause some distraction on the flanks, both units of daemonettes arrived as well.

The Salamander player chased hs airplane down his open flank, firing as it went.  He had by then lost already a small tactical squad that gained me First Blood, and his Predator had been severly damaged, but survived at 2 wounds to give his Techmarine some work on his hands.

However, his retaliation was brutal, decimating my close combat marines to only 4 models (and forcing me to use an Insane Bravery), but I rolled a 6 (for 3 points) on an Areal Denial amongst the other cards I could score, and giving me a strong 1-6 lead and outting him on the chase.

Turn 2

While my demon princess charged his airplane, a unit of daemonettes charged another of his Tactical squads.  Wim was comforted by Mike saying those daemonettes don't have much AP... so 4 rolls of 6 later...

The princess made short work of the airplane as well, boosted by Diabolical Strength (and giving me Rise to Glory).  His retaliation was not as severe in the previous turn, but the deamonettes did pay dearly.  This also meant my "oomph" was shot out of my army, but with a 1 - 8 lead, I decided to play the defence game from now on, withdraw on my own half and try to consolidate the lead.

Turn 3

That Predator had to die, not because it was so fantastically performing, but for the moral victory.  With my Havocs and Rapiers uickly decimated by the lascannons opposing me, it came down to the Noise Marines who finished the machine off.

In the centre, it where the Salamanders who where now forced to advance, and charged a unit of Cultists cowering behind a building... losing two of their number for 4 poor cultists.

With a 3 - 10 lead, I went into turn 4.  This would be do-able I guess, and Wim realised he needed good objective cards to turn this all around.

Turn 4 and 5

Continuing the waiting game, only Lucius charged forward, out to get to grips with a Techpriest after the Salamanders had destroyed the Noise Marines last turn.  Albeit at the expense of some wounds on his characters.  In close combat, the master duelist finished the wounded guy off swiftly as a result... and consolidated right towards his general (in front of stacks of lascannons...)

Wim threw the towel at this point, only playing his turn to nuke Lucius for some mental comfort "as his 5th turn"...

And the game ended at turn 4 / 5, with a 4 - 11 win for the Emperor's Children!

Victory to Slaanesh and another relic for my Altar.  In what was an odd going battle, looking at the table it was like I was constantly being hammered, and in a way that was as such.  But I had far more luck then Wim on the draw, and the gap I created in points in the first two turns meant I only needed to make sure to have at least one survivor at the end of the game....

Great game!